1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a baseball glove, and more particularly to a glove construction in which, except for the thumb piece, at least three finger pieces are formed as separated from one another.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In order to improve the ball catching performance of a baseball glove, it may be effective to increase its ball contact area or to provide a large-size glove.
In manufacturing such large-size baseball gloves, enlargement of the intermediate three finger pieces for the first finger, the second finger and the third finger is limited in space due to the finger size. In this connection, there has been a tendency recently to enlarge the thumb piece and the little-finger piece. However, even with the use of a normal size baseball glove, the little finger having a weak power is hardly turned sufficiently in the inward direction. In a larger glove, the little finger is slower in the inward turning action. Good ball catching cannot be therefore expected.
No proposal has ever been made for reinforcing such weak ball catching performance of the little finger, except for a construction in a normal baseball glove in which the tips of the four finger pieces except the thumb piece are connected to one another with leather strips, as shown in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,098,234.
Such linking construction has been made for making up for the defects produced with the tips of these four finger pieces left free. Namely, when the pressure of a ball caught with a glove acts on the tip of one of the four finger pieces, the ball causes such finger piece tip to be turned outwardly so that the ball escapes from the glove, because the finger tip does not reach the finger piece tip and the ball power can hardly be suppressed by the mere power of one finger. The object of such linking construction in which the respective finger piece tips are connected to one another, is to prevent the ball from escaping from the glove. Therefore, connection of the little-finger piece to the adjacent third-finger piece has not been made for reinforcing the ball catching performance of the little-finger piece. Even though such connection is effective in reinforcing the ball catching performance of the little-finger piece, an extremely small effect is merely expected.
As to baseball mitts, reference is made to, for example, the U.S. Pat. No. 3,051,958 which discloses a baseball mit having a large ball-catching area.
Mitts are generally constructed such that the four fingers except the thumb are inserted into one finger piece. Accordingly, even if the ball catching area is enlarged in a mitt, such enlargement does not produce trouble as in a glove, since the weak power of the little finger is reinforced directly by the other three fingers. However, a mitt lacks such advantage that each of the fingers performs an independent ball catching action as a glove does.